Tag Archives: sad

Sorry if the pic bothers anyone. It’s just a relief to see so many more in such a short time. If you’d rather not see it, just comment and I can remove it.

For a long time I’ve called this 30-something guy’s journal – mostly about bipolar II. In less than a month I’ll no longer be in my 30’s and I don’t write mainly about Bipolar II anymore, so I need to come up with a new name for this little space on the net’.

On another note, my wife and I have been trying to conceive based on her fertility tests and we’ve been doing pretty regular checks to see if I have any sperm with the microscope. Tonight was the first night I didn’t need to hunt to see sperm, but they were all dead. I’ve read up on it, and this apparently isn’t unusual. If I were to guess, in the 11 minutes I looked at the slide, I saw well over 200 sperm, which is a huge improvement from a week ago when 20-40 minutes of searching showed only a few. For proper lab testing we need a centrifuge and an incubator. Neither of those items are cost prohibitive. I’ll talk with my wife and see if she’s willing to wait long enough to just decide to go the IVF route to make the extra lab equipment worth the investment. It’d get used after this.

If someone did a tag search and found this blog about having a vasectomy reversal, please feel free to contact me to talk about the process. I did have one of the top surgeons in the country perform mine, even after 18 years of the original vasectomy. I can tall you about recovery times, pain, other things to expect and at least what the cost was for us (it was not covered under insurance and required general anesthesia). I know when I was researching online most of everything I found was very clinical in nature, but didn’t get into the actual reality of the procedure and recovery.

So, this is real. This is going to happen. Even if I can’t produce naturally, the surgeon that performed the reversal said as far as production and quality of sperm I may as well be in my 20’s. Extracting it would be less than pleasant, but nothing I’m not willing to endure to move the process forward. This is really happening, and likely within the next year, barring any complications. I’m equally excited about it and terrified at the same time. The terrified part is mostly the reasonable things people that are going to have a first child have. To summarize; I just don’t want to fuck up too much and to be a good father. The other part that scares me though is the crippling depression that I go so very often. I’m high-functioning when I’m depressed and to help with focus I have Adderall which has been a godsend. Out of the group of 20 of my position in the country, only two other perform consistently at my level with errors being extremely rare and missing deadlines being unheard of.

I’ve been researching online again to see if I can find a therapist that we kind of hit it off as far as being a good fit for working together that can allow me Skype sessions when I’m traveling. Our health insurance will cover it, but there’s a specific code that needs to be used and I need to see the therapist in person every so often as well. It’s the suicidal ideation and urge that I need help with. It’s a constant. I’m used to it. I’m in no danger, but it’s a constant thing running through my mind. I feel guilty about it. How shitty would it be to everyone around me if I were to check out early? How shitty would it be for me now that I’m living a life that I never thought possible? Why won’t this constant nagging desire..no..need, go away?

I go through the mental gymnastics centering around that and starting a family. I can live with the depression. It’s tolerable with medications. I’ve no doubt I could endure well into old age. But would having a depressive parent be selfish, even if I’m good at compartmentalizing it? I don;t know.. It’s late and I put in 70 hours this week. There are things I should work on this weekend, but I think I’m going to go do some photography with an old friend. If time allows for work I’ll do it, but I need downtime. I’ve earned it.

Not coping so well today. I did well at adult stuff – I bought a leaf blower and did yard work. Since this is our first home, this is a new thing. My wife is home, but working on her college project due at midnight, which means I have to leave her be.

Since I’ve not been coping well of late, mainly because of the loneliness of work travel, I’ve managed to find a therapist who’s local that can also do sessions via Skype and insurance will pay for it. I’d of went with her anyway because she seems to be a good fit for me, but that’s a bonus. I’m going to try to meet her for the first time this Thursday as my scheduled appointment out of state cancelled. Otherwise, I see her in a couple of weeks when I’m back in town.

What I need to work with her on is how to cope with the crushing loneliness of travel. I’m someone who needs physical contact. Not so much sexual contact; I can wait until it’s possible for my wife and I to be together in that way. It’s the other aspects. Basically touch and holding/being held. I’ve gone so far as to look into professional cuddlers and checked the areas that I frequent. It’s a possibility, but if I were to guess my wife wouldn’t want my to have anything to do with that, so I’m going to trust my instincts and not hire someone, even though it’s completely non-sexual.

The other thing I need to work on is that we’ve decided to start down the path of having a child. Since I had a vasectomy 18 years ago, the chances of a reversal being successful is a whopping 2%. Since those odds seem pointless, I’ve found a fertility clinic that has other surgical options to extract sperm and do in vitro, or freeze the extracted sperm if time is needed between extraction and fertilization.

So, why therapy over this? I grew up in a horribly abusive home. I literally don’t know how to interact with children. I’m the guy that if you hand a toddler, I hold it at arms length in utter terror. I really, truly, honestly don’t know what to do other that generically “don’t hurt it.” The vasectomy at 22 was because my depressive episodes were so severe that I was certain I’d not make it to 30. I also liked sex. Well, I still do, but that’s beside the point. Either way, I didn’t want to father a child and be the dad who killed himself or was too emotionally absent dealing with their own shit. So.. Yeah. I want to do this. I need guidance.

Lastly I need to talk to someone about the crushing depression that seems to be setting in. I’m not going to harm myself, but the thought of doing so is there every waking moment of every day and the urge is strong beyond words.

Anyway.. I guess that’s all I’ve got. I’ve drank a lot this weekend. Fill a large coffee mug with a couple of types of liquor and no ice, and you have one of my drinks. I’ve had two of those this weekend, and a shot of Diserono this morning with brunch.

Here is is Monday night and I already feel beat. In other news, after talking with the psychiatrist, we’ve decided to double my dose of Lexapro to try to battle the depression that’s seeped in. I’ve been mostly honest with her about how I’ve really been doing, but I should probably come clean about how strong the suicidal ideations are. It’s logically and objectively making sense to me, which isn’t a good thing.

I know there’s more than this.. Than existing, I mean. It’s not as bad as it can get, but I see that coming in the coming in the near future. Every time I think I know how bad it can get, it seems to surprise me by finding a new low. I’ve been self-medicating with alcohol some nights, which I really shouldn’t do, aside from the obvious, but even for health reasons alone. It’s not a regular thing, at least. I hadn’t had a drink in a couple of weeks, and tonight I’ve only had some. Not even enough to get a buzz.

I’m conflicted about telling my wife how I’m really doing. I owe her that much.. For the hell I’ve put her through with my mental illness, I owe her that much. On the other hand, for what I’ve put her though, I feel I owe it to her to keep it to myself. I’ve burdened her with this too much as it stands.. I don’t know what the hell to do to be honest. Part of me thinks I should leave so that she can find someone else that’s in a much better disposition than me. I know that’s the depression talking, but it’s how I feel either way. To be frank, if it weren’t for her, as cliche as it sounds, I’d not be here at this point. The lows have hit bad enough that I’d not just think about giving up, but would have, or would act on it. I couldn’t do that to her. Other people, yes, but not her. So, I have to figure out a way to push through. Since I have to push though, then I need to figure out a way to make that less miserable. Right now, chemically is about the only option that I see. It’s that, or ECT, or TMS, or Katamine, or whatever else is out there. All of which I could try, some of which would likely cost me my job, which would enter in a whole host of other fucked up problems that would likely make me even more depressed which wouldn’t be good for anyone.

I’ve spent countless hours trying to figure out if what’s going on with me is psychological or chemical. When I look at the world, I think there’s a mix of good and bad in the world. I don’t know what the balance is, but objectively, I think there’s considerably more good in the world than bad, but the bad gets most of the attention so it seems worse than it is. Overall, I am optimistic about most things. If what I experience is indeed mostly chemical, then it stands to reason that there will be breakthroughs within my lifetime that would offer relief. Approaching 40, barring anything unexpected, dare I hold on to hope that some relief can be found within a reasonable time in the next 35-50 years? Will I be so far gone into darkness that I’d even know how to handle being good, much less just ok? I don’t know.. My mind isn’t in a good place tonight. I’ll probably watch a show or something and then go to sleep. That seems to reset my mind pretty well.

Do you ever have one of those days that you feel defeated? One of those weeks? Months? Years? I’m exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Work has seeped a lot out of me. Most of my lack of posting has been due to the grueling hours of travel and need for actual physical rest. There are two days left until the weekend, and both are to be incredibly busy at home and work. We have a friend flying out for the weekend and we need to finish getting the guest bedroom in order. At least the bed is all put together finally.

I’ve been on Latuda now for a couple months, mixed with my normal regimen of Lamictal and Lexapro. So far it seems to be doing well, but tonight I’m feeling as unnerved as I was prior to medication that worked. I’m dreading fall and winter with the shorter hours of daylight and the shades of white, gray and brown. Winter is always tough..

I guess that’s about it for now. Not much is going on that I care to put into writing.

I.. Ugh.. It took me an hour and a half to conform that everyone I know and care for in Boston was okay, at least physically that is.. A friend sent me a text a few minutes into her commute home. She said it’s silent – completely silent in the packed rail car. People look scared and worried. She’s scared and worried, too. I’m scared and worried for her…. I’ve asked her to let me know when she’s made it home.

I’ve heard such profoundly ignorant things from the mouths of people in regards to terrorism and our constant need for war. I wish more people would stop and ask themselves the reasons for such things other than make assumptions or look at things from an us or them perspective. Sure, I’ve had times where I’ve felt the need and felt justified to use violence just as others have felt the same with me. I think in some situations violence is a reasonable and appropriate response. If someone is willing to try to compromise, then by all means, compromise… As blindingly infuriated as I am about what’s happened in Boston today, I am disheartened by the comments I’ve heard surrounding it. People’s true opinions and feelings come out when tragedy hits. Has anyone ever stopped to consider that they know as little about the people they profess to hate with ever fiber of their being as the people whom are attacking innocent people? It’s the idea that they hate. It’s the ignorance they have about a people, a culture and an ideology. It’s the same thing that’s cost the collective billions of lives over the centuries. Are people so naive as to think that an entire country woke one day and decided to pick a fight with the worlds largest military superpower? Even an unwashed uneducated public couldn’t get behind such a bad idea. So, for my sake and the sake of my unborn children and the futures of us all now and for the generations to come – ask yourselves why. Research. Learn. Understand. When you start to understand, reach out – try to gain mutual understanding. All of this blind depersonalized and dehumanized hate will only be met by others feeling the exact same way. I’m not saying we’re responsible for this mess.. Not at all. What I am saying is that by remaining fearful and complacent in the way things are we can’t expect things to change. I’ve seen too many young people who aren’t even old enough to be trusted with alcohol in the eyes of the law here getting shipped over to fight in wars that they can’t even begin to understand, much less comprehend what they are doing there in the first place given that wars are started by men in suits who will never see battle first-hand. If a leader isn’t willing to lead head-long into battle with his army, then there’s a good chance that the conflict isn’t something that they believe in strongly enough to risk spilling their own blood. But there seems to be absolutely no problem with spilling the blood of our children. I have my own opinions about why our country has done horrific things politically and militarily for so long, but I don’t have a full picture of the complexity of it all. I, just like the people that “we” fear so much am trying to keep a roof over my head, food on the table and relative safety for my loved ones. The way some talk though, you’d believe there are daily “how can we f’up the Americans” meetings. That’s not reality….

So, my heart aches for those who have been touched by this tragedy. My heart also goes out to the countless lives that will be lost as result of it overseas and for the families that will be grieving soon as well. We need to stop this cycle. I know it won’t happen all at once and I know there will be a tremendous amount of bloodshed before we reach an understanding.. It will be never-ending if we don’t try to understand and educate ourselves though. Find common ground. We’re all just trying to do what’s best by those we care about. Put yourselves in their shoes – what would drive you to this point? What would it take? I’m not asking you to try to fully understand – just to think. Think critically and objectively.